


For Zelda, Whenever I May Find Her

by virgil



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, F/M, Graphic Animal Death, do u ever wonder if link got SAD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-10 19:06:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18666514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virgil/pseuds/virgil
Summary: Link writes a letter to Zelda shortly before the end of the end.





	For Zelda, Whenever I May Find Her

The truth is I was never sure if we would make it.

I don’t remember much from Before. It is a hazy dream on the best of days, when I can sit and admire the sunrise over the valleys. This is a beautiful place, nature in its slow overtaking has made a masterpiece of the land. Did we think so, then? Did you and I, in our shared strange past, have time to appreciate this? It took me so long to recall the specifics, and I still remember only precious little of our small joys.

The storms have come three times in the past week. I fear they are more frequent now, as the castle’s guardians grow ever more restless. The people understand this, they have told me. I remember when you too would worry, your hand darting to your braid—a nervous tic, but it slew me every time—and you would tell me of dark times ahead. How young we were, then. How determined, how steadfast, against the calamity. I told you then that I was sure we would succeed. I told you because I needed you to believe in something. I wanted you to believe in a future.

Last night, Zelda, I saw a wolf hunt down a deer in the plains. It stalked it for hours before the kill. The deer perished, but the wolf fed. It was a tragedy in the small way that this world is full of tragedies, and like all tragedies did not end the world itself. It only changed things. Today the vultures will pick clean the carcass, the worms next, and each creature that feeds on the dead will live a more full life for it. Each cycle of destruction begets new growth in the end.

I remember hunting with you, on the castle grounds when we could steal a moment from the guards. I didn’t recall it at first, all those months ago when I awoke, but I climbed to the top of a ridge and Zelda, oh, Zelda—I remembered it all: you in your royal blue hunting gear, the scent of the dew in the mornings and your sharp breath as you pulled the bowstring back. I think it was then that I realized how much I loved you, how much you meant to me in the Before.

I have never been good at talking, Zelda. You were the mathematician, the rallying cry, the symbol. I was the loyal knight, the hunting dog. I knew my place. I carried your banner in the field and in the stateroom. When the troops of Ganon came pouring into our lands I went where you bid me. I found our champions and I believed in them because you believed in them. But I held my convictions tight to my chest, Zelda. There was no time for emotions then. Perhaps in another life.

But in this new world, so alike to the previous but alight in some new fire, some new sun peeking over the mountains, I am compelled, Zelda. I am driven to tell you everything, to have a record of my own discoveries so that if I find you—no, when I find you, I can finally, for once, be sure.

It is in the air, in the moss and the vines, in the plains and the rolling hills and the snow-capped peaks. I finally have the time to know what I have always known: that it was you. I have never been sure of anything, Zelda, save for you.

It is growing dark, Zelda. I have been watching the castle for hours. I will finish what we started. I have never been more sure of anything than I am of this.

There is a wolf in the castle, but it is not Ganon.

There is a wolf in the castle, and I come bearing her sword.

 

 

 


End file.
